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100 Ways To Deal With Stress

Stress. A six letter word which can cause heart palpitations simply by being said out loud. Its an emotion we all feel because we're human at the end of the day. Just in case you wanted to know, stress is caused when you encounter a potential 'threat' and your hypothalamus, at the base of your brain, sets off an alarm system in your body. Through nerve and hormonal signals, this system prompts your adrenal glands, at the top of your kidneys, to release a surge of hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol. Adrenaline increases your heart rate, blood pressure and boosts energy supplies. Cortisol is the primary stress hormone and it increases glucose in the bloodstream, enhances your brain's use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues. Ahh, science eh?

Stress is all relative and so a class test may not seem like a big deal to you but could be the equivalent of representing their country in the Olympics to somebody else. We all have different things that make us feel sad, happy and that make us laugh, just like the way we all have particular things that stress us out. They may relate to school, work, home life, health, family, whatever it is, we are all destined to go through stressy patches. Therefore, I thought I would compile a list of one hundred things that you can do to help take the edge of when you feel as though your head is on the verge of explosion. These are all tiny things but I'm hoping that at least one of them will work. So, next time you find yourself feeling stressed and worried, perhaps it'll be in exam season, perhaps it'll be when you're buying Christmas presents or it could simply be when you're cooking dinner tomorrow, just take yourself out of the situation for a moment and try one of these things to help you cope with things a little better.